Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Fish landing falls, but State fares better

News

• Oil sardine catch has declined sharply with a 54% fall in landings across the country.
• The popular fish variety fell to the 9th position in 2018. It had the top position in 2017. From the 2017 landings of 3.37 lakh tonnes, the figure came down to 1.55 lakh tonnes in 2018.

Beyond News

• The total marine fish production too fell by 9% in 2018, recording 3.49 million tonnes compared to 3.83 million tonnes in 2017, a drop of 3.47 lakh tonnes. The data collated by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) were released.
• The El Nino phenomenon had an impact on Indian waters. During the period in question, ocean surface temperatures shot up by two to three degrees, impacting fish breeding.
• Besides, the number of fishing days came down in several States due to cyclones and heavy rain.
• Fishers were not inclined to venture into the sea owing to the fall in fish catch and rising fuel prices.
• The data also revealed that Indian mackerel with a total landing of 2.84 lakh tonnes was the toast of the marine basket. Squid, cuttlefish, and octopus, categorised as cephalopods, formed the second largest variety with a catch of 2.21 lakh tonnes.
• The drop in oil sardine catch in Kerala was 39%. It fell to 77,093 tonnes from 1.27 lakh tonnes in 2017. However, even as the total fish landings in the country dropped, the State registered a 10% increase with 6.42 lakh tonnes in total landings compared to the previous year, with all major resources, except oil sardines, recording an increased catch. The State also upped its position from fourth to third.
• The decrease in overall fish landings was mainly attributed to the low catch in West Bengal, Karnataka, and Maharashtra with a drop of 2.01 lakh tonnes, 0.95 lakh tonnes, and 0.86 lakh tonnes respectively.
• Among the nine maritime States, Gujarat was in the first position with 7.80 lakh tonnes, followed by Tamil Nadu (7.02 lakh tonnes) and Kerala (6.43 lakh tonnes).
• Indian mackerel was the most abundant resource in Kerala (80,568 tonnes) with a significant increase of 142% compared to the previous year.
• Even as fish landings dropped, the value was slightly higher in comparison with the previous year.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Trump says nationwide immigration arrests to begin on Sunday

News

• The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said efforts to deport families with orders to leave the country will continue after an upcoming national sweep that President Donald Trump said would start.

Beyond News

• Targets were on an “accelerated docket” of immigration court cases for predominantly Central Americans who recently arrived at the U.S. border in unprecedented numbers. Similar operations occurred in 2016 under President Barack Obama and in 2017 under Mr. Trump.
• The operation will target people with final deportation orders on 10 major court dockets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.
• Doesn’t mean arrests will be limited to certain areas. Authorities will go where their investigations lead, even if it’s five states away from where the case is filed.
• The operation further inflamed the political debate over immigration as Mr. Trump appeals to his base with a pledge to crack down on migrants and Democrats cast the president and his administration as inhumane for going after families.
• The Obama-era family operation in 2016 resulted in about 10% of those targeted being arrested, and the2017 effort had a lower arrest  Other operations that have targeted people with criminal arrest records have yielded arrests rates of about 30%, aided by access to law enforcement databases.
• Administration officials have said they are targeting about 2,000 people, which would yield about 200 arrests based on previous crackdowns. Mr. Trump has said that his agents plan to arrest millions of immigrants in the country illegally.
• The operation will target entire families that have been ordered removed, but some family may be separated if some members are in the country legally.
• Families may be temporarily housed in hotels until they can be transferred to a detention center or deported. It would not allow ICE to use its hotels for holding immigrants.
• The government has limited space in its family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania.

• Health Ministry to use AI in public health

News

• The Union Health Ministry is working towards using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a safe and effective way in public health.

Beyond News

• Union Health Minister that to address gaps in India’s AI ecosystem and realise its economic impact, the central government has prioritized building AI technology capabilities.
• A few of the initiatives undertaken by the central government to use AI in public health are Imaging Biobank for cancer, for which the NITI Aayog with Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) aims to build a database of cancer-related radiology and pathology images of more than 20,000 profiles of cancer patients with focus on major cancers prevalent in India.
• The NITI Aayog is working on using AI for early detection of diabetic retinopathy.
• The NITI Aayog is currently in the process of developing institutional mechanism, funding framework and other such steps to realise India’s AI aspirations.
• NITI Aayog, after consultation with various ministries and leading academicians, institutions, practitioners and industry players, released India’s National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in June 2018.
• Through the strategy and subsequent initiatives, the key recommendations in AI are being pursued.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Russia sends telescope into space

News

• Russia launched a space telescope from the cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, in a joint project with Germany.

Beyond News

• The Spektr-RG, developed with Germany, is a space observatory intended to replace the Spektr-R, known as the “Russian Hubble”, which Roskosmos said it lost control of in January.
• Spektr-R was launched in 2011 to observe black holes, neutron stars and magnetic fields. Its successor will take up similar duties.
• Since 2011, Russia has been the only country capable sending teams to the International Space Station (ISS).

Humans drive all-male elephant grouping

News

• Environmental and anthropogenic factors have not just degraded elephant habitats and left them stressed, but also changed their social behaviour, notes a recent study.

Findings

• The study revealed that there has been an increase in all-male elephant groups in the regions where landscape have been modified by humans. However, these elephants remained solitary or associated in mixed-age and mixed-sex groups within the forested areas.
• From February 2016 to December 2017, the researchers observed Asian elephants in a large area of nearly 10,000 sq. km, encompassing protected forested areas and human-use habitations including crop fields in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
• Using camera traps, they monitored the elephants that visit the nearby agricultural areas and those that stayed largely within the forests. Mature male elephants are known to move out from their herd to find nutritious forage to improve their reproductive health and also find a mate. But usually they roam around solo.
• The study found that in recent times the male elephants have started to form small groups.
• Individuals familiar with the landscape help the group navigate better, find nutritious foraging sites and survive in the human-inhabited area. This has become a “behavioural necessity for the young males in high-risk, high-resource landscape,” notes the study.
• The researchers found that these groups comprised of mixed age male elephants and their number also varied. The smallest was two and the largest male group comprised of 25 individuals.
• Some of these elephants have been together for over 10 years.

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